Hon’ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.—Heard Sri Arvind Verma, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Sri Piyush Bhargava, Advocate, for appellants; and, Sri B. Dayal, Sri Madan Mohan, Sri Ranjeet Saxena and Sri S.C. Gupta, Advocates, for claimants.

2. All these appeals under Section 54 of Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act, 1894”) have come up at the instance of defendant-Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the “PGCIL”) who has felt aggrieved by award/judgments dated 29th September, 2004 and 26th April, 2005, whereby Reference Courts have determined market value of acquired land at Rs. 131/- per square meter. All the appeals have arisen from award/judgment dated 29.9.2004 except First Appeals No. 632/2005, 637/2005, 638/2005, 641/2005, 643/2005, 647/2005, 648/2005 and 650/205 which have arisen from award/judgment dated 26.4.2005.

3. Some claimants/respondents have also filed Cross Appeals which we have detailed in a chart given at a later stage. Since, all these appeals and cross appeals have arisen from common acquisition proceedings and involve common issues, therefore, have been heard together and are being decided by this common judgment.

4. For the purpose of establishing 765/400/220 KV Transmission Sub-Station, PGCIL proposed to acquire more than 70 hectares of land in village ‘Mataur’ and ‘Samauli Salempur’, District Meerut. These two villages are adjacent to each other. Proceedings for acquisition of land, forcibly, were initiated under the provisions of Act, 1894. Notification under Section 4(1) read with Section 17(1) of Act, 1894 was issued on 13.2.1995 proposing to acquire 70.7562 hectares land (55.1754 hectares in village Mataur and 15.5840 hectares land in village Samauli Salempur). Notification under Section 6(1) read with Section 17(1) of Act, 1894 was published in Gazette dated 17.9.1995. Possession of acquired land was taken on 6.9.1996. The proposed acquisition included land in two villages of various Khasra numbers and areas, as detailed below :

Khasra No. meter)	Area (in Sq.No.	Khasra meter)	Area (in Sq.No.	Khasra meter)	Area (in Sq.
144	208	183	4110	184	160
187	1700	188	1976	189	908
190	1056	191	1810	192	1810
193	1030	194	1008	195	750
196	750	198	4536	199	4056
201	1660	202	1656	205	239
206	240	207	3886	208	2540
210	2590	211	1030	212	1030
213	1030	214	4059	215	4142
227	16	230	16770	233	1600
234	1620	235	2080	237	2090
238	2080	240	6610	241	6620
242	3106	243	3186	244	3186
247	5380	250	3640	251	2504
252	2744	253	264	255	3890
394	780	395	26960	396	1672
397	320	399	7800	401	1208
403	1700

Village - Samauli Salempur :

Khasra No. meter)	Area (in Sq.No.	Khasra meter)	Area (in Sq.No.	Khasra meter)	Area (in Sq.
144	208	183	4110	184	160
187	1700	188	1976	189	908
190	1056	191	1810	192	1810
193	1030	194	1008	195	750
196	750	198	4536	199	4056
201	1660	202	1656	205	239
206	240	207	3886	208	2540
210	2590	211	1030	212	1030
213	1030	214	4059	215	4142
227	16	230	16770	233	1600
234	1620	235	2080	237	2090
238	2080	240	6610	241	6620
242	3106	243	3186	244	3186
247	5380	250	3640	251	2504
252	2744	253	264	255	3890
394	780	395	26960	396	1672
397	320	399	7800	401	1208
403	1700

5. Notices under Section 9 were issued on 16.12.1995. Claimants-land owners filed objections claiming compensation at the rates, varying from Rs. 400/- to Rs. 1500/- per sq. yar